Data networks contain various network devices, such as switches, for sending and receiving data between two locations. For example, a frame relay network contains interconnected network devices that allow data packets to be channeled over a circuit through the network from a host to a remote device. For a given network circuit, the data from a host location is delivered to the network through a physical circuit such as a T1 line that links to a switch of the network. The remote device that communicates with the host through the network also has a physical circuit to a switch of the network. The communication path between the switches associated with the host and the remote device that passes through the network is a logical circuit. In a frame relay network, end devices do not select different routes for data packets sent between the host and the remote location, but always send the data packets through the same path. A host may have many logical circuits, such as permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) or switched virtual circuits (SVCs), linked to many remote locations. For example, a PVC in a frame relay network sends and receives data packets through the same path leading to the switch of the remote device's physical connection
The switches in a data network are generally in communication with one or more legacy logical and physical element modules. For example, in a frame relay network, a logical element module communicates with a switch to instruct the switch to function as a logical port in the network. The switches of the network send data packets to particular destinations and thereby create logical circuits in response to the information provided by the logical element module. Because the legacy logical element module has access to the switches, it can also log the operating parameters of each switch. The legacy logical and physical element modules are utilized by technicians to employ methods for provisioning and maintaining network circuits in the network. These current methods, however, suffer from several drawbacks.
First, to provision a network circuit for a service, it is currently necessary for a technician to establish the physical circuit by making a physical connection (i.e., wiring the circuit) between a host device and the switch and then to access a terminal in the logical element module to manually enter data for establishing the logical circuit in the switch. However, these current methods for provisioning network circuits require the utilization of manpower resources (i.e., technicians are required at the switch and at the legacy logical element module) which could be deployed elsewhere as well as the time required for the technicians to manually enter the provisioning data.
Second, to maintain a network circuit, currently two processes generally occur after a problem is reported. First, a technician accesses the legacy logical element module to troubleshoot the logical circuit by accessing and analyzing logical circuit data from one or more switches to determine if the logical circuit is down. If the logical circuit is operating properly, the technician then accesses the legacy physical element module to troubleshoot the physical circuit, which in most instances requires taking the network circuit out of service to perform testing. However, currently there is no access by the legacy physical element module to the logical data provided by the legacy logical element module for use in troubleshooting physical circuits. As a result of not having access to the logical data, there may be instances where the network circuit is unnecessarily taken out of service
Therefore, there is a need for an interface to provision network circuits in a data network without manual intervention. There is a further need for access to logical circuit data to improve the maintenance of network circuits in a data network.